Grow in the Garden with Free Classes
The City of Bellevue and Cascade Water Alliance are offering a series of seven free classes to help you bloom alongside your garden, starting tomorrow! Join for one or all of these classes no matter your skill level.
Layering the Landscape for Less Maintenance: Clematis, shrubs and groundcovers that love our climate
Thursday, February 28 | 7 – 8:30 pm | Bellevue Botanical Garden
Taught by Marianne Binetti, radio host, author, columnist
The layered look of the new NW landscape that depends on color from vines especially clematis, the queen of all vines. Learn how to sneak clematis through shrubs, setting pots into the beds to contain focal point plants that need to show off and filling all empty space with the right groundcovers for weed control and to act as a living mulch. Includes warnings of groundcovers to avoid, how to turn an overgrown yard into a layered landscape and how to maintain the three different levels.
Intro to Organic Gardening
Saturday, March 2 | 10:30 am – 12 pm | Bellevue Master Gardeners Demonstration Garden
Taught by Veralea Swayne, Educator and Garden Manager, Tilth Alliance
Interested in growing your own food but don’t know where to start? With a little sun, soil, and water you can turn your backyard into your most local source of fresh, organic vegetables and fruits. This class will discuss siting your garden, building healthy soil, basics of garden planning and pest management. Class space is limited, so arrive early if you want a seat.
Knock Out Gardens: Winning the War on Water Use with Great Plants and Techniques
Saturday, March 9 | 10 – 11:30 am | Bellevue Nursery
Knock Out Gardens will inspire you to plant not just shrubs and perennials that will survive in our climate, but plants that make a knock out statement when grown together and that will also smother weeds and solve other landscape problems. Learn how to combine contrasting foliage in planting areas by creating stunning plant marriages and how short, shrubby plants can support taller specimens so you won't need to stake or tie up flowers; great ground covers to block weeds around shrub roses; and how to use trees and large shrubs already in your landscape as focal points for creating theme gardens with seasonal interest that will knock your socks off.
Natural Lawn Care
Saturday, March 16 | 10:30 am – 12 pm | Bellevue Master Gardeners Demonstration Garden
Taught by Ladd Smith, co-owner of In Harmony Landscape Services
Learn how to have a better lawn with less effort with natural lawn care practices that will save you time, money and water. Learn how to grow a better lawn with less fertilizer, water and pesticides. Mowing, watering, fertilizing and weed control will be discussed, along with moss and mole solutions. Class space is limited, so arrive early if you want a seat.
Gardening in Small Spaces: Grow More Food on a Tiny Footprint
Saturday, March 23 | 10:30 am – 12 pm | Bellevue Master Gardener Demonstration Garden
Taught by Lisa Taylor, author and horticulturist
Growing vegetables and fruit in small urban spaces is fun and easy. Join Lisa Taylor, garden educator and author of the Maritime Northwest Garden Guide and Your Farm in the City; An Urban Dweller’s Guide to Growing Food and Raising Animals in a lively discussion about growing vegetables vertically, in containers and in raised beds. Learn how to reimage your garden and maximize your food production. Explore container and vertical garden basics for growing a diverse and successful edible garden. We will identify vegetable and fruit varieties that are best suited to small space gardening.
Eat Your Yard: Edible Landscape Design
Saturday, March 30 | 10 – 11: 30 am | Bellevue Nursery
Taught by Lisa Taylor, author and horticulturist
Edible landscapes start in the vegetable garden but they needn’t end there. Explore the elements of an edible landscape and discuss criteria for selecting edibles with Lisa Taylor, author of the “Maritime Northwest Garden Guide” and “Your Farm in the City; An Urban Dweller’s Guide to Growing Food and Raising Animals”. Learn how to include edibles among your existing landscape. Explore how selecting edible landscape trees, shrubs and annuals can feed the family year round. Edible landscapes can also lead to healthier eating and cooking. Harvesting and preparing food from your landscape are wonderful family and community experiences.
Contain Yourself: Smart Ideas for Gardening in Pot
Saturday, April 6 | 10 – 11:30 am | Bellevue Nursery
Taught by Marianne Binetti, radio host, author, columnist
Don't make the most common container gardening mistakes. Do learn how to grow crops in pots, shrubs in tubs and roses in recycled containers. In this class you will learn the most sustainable ways to fertilize, water, and design plants in containers, especially plants that do not demand a lot of water.
Image thanks to Bellevue Demonstration Garden
